PORTLAND, Maine — Jury selection will begin Friday for the trial of a 70-year-old lobsterman accused of fatally shooting 63-year-old Leon Kelley of Georgetown at a North Yarmouth bee farm in October 2013.
Merrill “Mike” Kimball of Yarmouth allegedly confronted Kelley outside the North Yarmouth bee supply shop owned by 94-year-old Stan Brown, a longtime beekeper well-known in industry circles in Maine and nationally.
Kimball allegedly shot Kelley with a black Ruger LCP .380 handgun at about 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013, according to court documents. Kelley died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso while traveling in an ambulance to Maine Medical Center.
Kelley was the son-in-law of Brown, who has been beekeeping for more than 80 years, according to a 2014 American Bee Journal article. Kimball is the husband of Brown’s business partner, Karen Thurlow-Kimball.
Kimball was indicted in November 2013 and pleaded not guilty.
His attorney, Daniel Lilley, did not return a phone call or email for comment this week. However, he previously told Portland NBC affiliate WCSH-TV Channel 6 that his client fired the gun in self defense.
“He did what he thought was appropriate, reluctantly,” Lilley told the television station. “He took out the gun and shot at this fellow. The man kept coming, it didn’t seem to faze him in the least. So he shot him a couple more times and it stopped the attack. Unfortunately, [it] caused the man’s death.”
Brown told the Bangor Daily News in the days following the incident that he believes his son-in-law was fatally shot trying to protect his store from his business partner’s husband. Brown said he was in his home, about 200 feet from the shop, overcoming an illness when he heard the faint sound of gunshots that afternoon.
“My daughter came in and said, ‘There’s been an accident up at the shop.’ So I got up and went up to the shop,” Brown recalled. “I saw Karen up there and she said, ‘My husband shot Leon and they’re taking him away in an ambulance.’”
Brown said he had told Kelley to keep Kimball from entering his store, which was closed at the time. Brown said he’d told Kimball several times in recent years to stay away from his shop, but he had gone into the store when it was closed “to take tools, bee supplies or anything else he could sell.”
Assistant Attorney General John Alsop, who will prosecute the case, did not return a phone call or email this week.
The trial is expected to begin Monday and last through the week.
BDN Portland bureau chief Seth Koenig contributed to this report.